Cross-strait relations improving between Taipei and Beijing

China and Taiwan signed a tariff-slashing trade pact Tuesday that boosts economic ties and further eases political tensions six decades after the rivals split amid civil war....

The deal was signed in the southern Chinese city of Chongqing -- a venue with an evocative history. Communist leader Mao Zedong and Nationalist President Chiang Kai-shek tried to negotiate a truce there after World War II -- but failed. The two sides then resumed the civil war that ultimately saw Chiang's government driven from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949....